LED-WIZ 12V LED light strip wiring assistance

[mattman8329]

Hello and thank you for taking the time to trying to assist me. I have a 32 port LED-Wiz (http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=82&products_id=239) with the 12v bank voltage. I am attempting to recreate the proper wiring and am having a hard time. I have a 12v power supply (not computer), the LED-Wiz and RGB LED light strip(http://www.mjjcledlite.com/images/upload/Image/rgb%20strip%20connect%20with%20connectors.jpg). I am no electrician and I have found the correct combination in the past, but for the life of me can't get it going now. Does anyone have a picture or easy to read diagram as to where the Ground and the 12V+ go and how to loop it back to the LED strip. I know the RGB wires go into the LED-Wiz #-# based on the power bank. I am pretty confident that the black wire from power supply is -ground and needs to be connected to the Ground terminal (next to the 5v+ USB port). I am also pretty sure the 12V+ goes to the power bank that I am using and can daisy chain across all four banks if needed. After that I get a little fuzzy and have tried several combinations, but I believe the 12V+ then needs to go to the 12v+ on the LED light strip. I have LEDBlinky software package that has a LED tester program. It recognizes the LED-Wiz and I have 'test all LED's' checked, and yet I am not getting any response as I have had in the past. I am afraid my wiring is not correct. A picture or a simple to read diagram would be beneficial. I attempted searching for a solution and ended up posting here. Thanks again for any assistance, I feel dumb since I can't get it working again!

And yes, I stared at this, but need some additional explanation please...

http://groovygamegear.com/PDF/LEDWIZv2_INSTALL.pdf

 

[Nephasth]

Have you configured your LED-Wiz's inputs in LEDBlinky yet?

[mattman8329]

Yes, I have. Like I say - I have had it working in the past. I also am using a tool that came with LEDBlinky that is called SimpleLEDTest and it just turns on all channels, so, I know it's a wiring issue and not a software issue. Any assistance or direction you can point me in would be great... I checked google images, searched for hours, but I can't find an exact guide that is easy to read just for 12V LED strip...

[Nephasth]

Yes, I have. Like I say - I have had it working in the past. I also am using a tool that came with LEDBlinky that is called SimpleLEDTest and it just turns on all channels, so, I know it's a wiring issue and not a software issue. Any assistance or direction you can point me in would be great... I checked google images, searched for hours, but I can't find an exact guide that is easy to read just for 12V LED strip...

Off of memory, I believe the ends of the strips are like this:

12V -- Run this to the bank voltage terminals
   G  -- Runs to a # on the LED-Wiz
   R  -- Runs to a # on the LED-Wiz
   B  -- Runs to a # on the LED-Wiz

Sounds like you've got your LED-Wiz wired correctly. Black wire from your power source going to the ground terminal of your LED-Wiz, and 12V from your power source going to the bank voltage terminals (and yes, it is perfectly OK to daisy chain your bank voltage terminals if all of the corresponding output #s have components connected to them using the same voltage). And since you said it's set up in LEDBlinky, the USB cable is plugged in. Just remember, if you activate all outputs on the LED-Wiz, your RGB strips will light up white.

[mattman8329]

Right, yeah it would be white because all three channels are lit up. I came up with this plan after I was tired of beating my head into a wall last night. 

So, I will go home and try this method. I am not exactly sure how it was wired up last night - but I got it to be controlled with the LEDBlinky SIMPLELEDTEST, could dim it, but it never fully turned off. It would dim down, but only to a certain point, and when I unchecked all LED's the brightness goes down from full to the lowest dim setting, and it should be turned off completely. At least that is what it did last time. I will experiment further now that I know the ground and positive are in the right spots... So, 12v+ into bank, and then from the bank run to the 12v+ on the LED strip - I will see how it goes and report back. If I get it I will post a pick for all the other newbs out there...

I may have fried some circuits and that is why I am getting the weird side effects... luckily I have two LEDWIZ's - I hope one of them is still functional

[molton]

If activating different channels is brightening and disabling channels dimming all the lights, they must all be wired together, I think what you want to do is wire all the reds in their own circuit, all the greens on another, etc. although they can share a common ground, is that how the LED-WIZ works?  Check out this pdf from a different led driver

[Mysterioii]

It almost sounds like either you don't have something wired right or the board is damaged, and somewhere 5Vdc is getting where ground should be.  If you were running the LED strip between 12V and 5V instead of between 12V and Ground then "off" would be sitting there with 5V where there should be ground and you'd still have 7Vdc across each LED and the built in current limiting resistors.  That would explain why they don't dim down completely, or turn off when you uncheck the output completely.

I assume you don't have a multimeter?  I strongly recommend that everyone playing around with any electronics.  Even a cheapy-cheapo $5 from radio shack or something is better than nothing.  You will not regret the purchase... in 5 seconds you would know if the LEDWiz outputs are really going to ground or if they're giving you something else.

[mattman8329]

Ok, sorry for the delay - I must have been wiring it incorrectly the night before. I did get the wires figured out and started wiring up my project. Got them all turned on and assigned, then I went to turn them off and found out that some lights stayed on. Well, that means some wires were crossed somewhere. I disconnected and looked at it the next day - found the crossed grounds and got everything working and dancing to music and it was great. Came back next day to find no power at all. The 12v wallbrick died. Tried another one and it died the following day as well. And they didn't have enough power to run the lights to full brightness. So, I decided to figure out how to use a power supply. Thought I was supposed to grab the red and black wires, but that didn't kick out enough juice. I then decided to hack into the yellow cable, and sure enough there was a lot of power in that one. Lit all my LED strips (about 40 ft) pure bright white. I am very happy and satisfied now, but I have found that the LEDWIZ get's super hot to the touch. I was wondering if this was normal or if I should be concerned. I am pretty sure there are no additional wires crossed and everything is working as expected. Does it just get hot since there is so much current going through it? Thanks for everyone's help, sorry for the delay in posting my success response

[RandyT]

I then decided to hack into the yellow cable, and sure enough there was a lot of power in that one. Lit all my LED strips (about 40 ft) pure bright white. I am very happy and satisfied now, but I have found that the LEDWIZ get's super hot to the touch. I was wondering if this was normal or if I should be concerned. I am pretty sure there are no additional wires crossed and everything is working as expected. Does it just get hot since there is so much current going through it? Thanks for everyone's help, sorry for the delay in posting my success response

If the LED-Wiz is getting that hot, you are pulling a lot of current.  40ft of LED's is way too much, especially if you are trying to do it from just one output.  If you have them split up, you need to calculate the current over each strip, and decide if it's better to use more outputs.  I wouldn't continue to run it that way if it's getting that hot.